HBV in english

Hietsu Beach Volley Club (HBV) is Finland’s largest beach volley club. Our activities focus on adult’s non-professional games at Hietaranta (Hietsu) beach in Helsinki. Although our official language is Finnish, you are very welcome to join the club as our games and other activities are in English as well.

Hietsu Beach Volley Club was founded in 1995. Today, we have more than 700 active members taking part in our activities: free play using the HBV quality gear, weekly games for men and women (king of the beach -style with our own ranking system), courses, member tournaments, organised training sessions, beach parties and sauna evenings. You can follow our events calendar to keep track of what’s happening.

Membership

Once you have registered and paid, you’ll get to use all the club’s gear: balls, nets, ropes…everything you need to get a game going. Weather permitting, there are always other players on the beach – and you are guaranteed to find a crowd of players on sunny afternoons and evenings from May to September.

Please note that all the players on the court must be HBV members, and that we do not allow visitors. We do not sell day-passes or other options for visiting players.

Weekly games and trainings

Due to COVID-19 pandemic there are some special arrangements (overriding rules in the next paragraph) regaridng Weekly Games. Check them out HERE!

(The official HBV weekly games for all members are played on Tuesdays (ladies’ “Tirsat”) and Wednesdays (gents’ “Keskarit”), starting at 18:00. To take part, just come to the beach before 17.45 to sign up -you don’t need to have a partner to play with.)

All players will be divided into groups of four, and everyone will play with everyone one game until 21 points. After the games, the ranking points of every player will be counted, and the ranking points affect your ranking which will affect who you will play with in the next weekly games.

HBV organizes trainings for members. They are led by experienced players and each session can accommodate a limited number of participants. Sign up in advance for the trainings here.

Contacts

Sign up for our member newsletter from the footer of the page (tilaa uutiskirje) to receive the latest news in brief in Finnish and English.

If you need to get in touch with the HBV board, you can reach them via email hallitus@hbv.fi.

The unofficial but often fastest way to get information is to join HBV’s Facebook group. The group is for HBV members only, and the board moderates the group and accepts new or previous members to the group. All members of the group are welcome to produce content in the group.

Beach etiquette

All members of HBV have to remember some simple rules so that playing is nice and easy for everyone:

Every time you are playing in Hietsu, participate in setting up and taking down the net.

Pay attention to other players, and during busy days, rotate the courts between players.

Pay attention to other users of the beach – Hietsu is not only for HBV players.

Respect and take care of HBV’s equipment, keep the hut and the beach clean.

SET UP – PLAY – TAKE DOWN is a good principle for using the beach. See below a video (in Finnish) of a model performance of using the courts.

Only HBV members who have paid their membership fee have the right to use the equipment. You are not allowed to give them to outsiders or take them out of Hietsu. The equipment is kept in a shed with a combination lock. Do not give the code to outsiders or shout it aloud while at the beach. Lock the shed and remember to turn the numbers on the lock so that the correct combination is not visible.

When you get to the beach, set up a court. The principle is that every player sets up at least one court and takes down at least one court every time they are playing. The courts are set in to the beach in four rows.

The easiest way to find games is to go to the beach and set up a court. You can also go next to a court and ask if they would take you to the games. In HBV, we want to make sure that everyone gets to play. Especially during the busy days everyone must be flexible and give other players an opportunity for games.

When the players start to leave the beach, you take down the courts starting from the beach side. After taking down the court, take all the equipment to the shed and the places where they belong.

In the video below there’s an example how to set up and take down a court